The owner and operator of the national power grid, Transpower New Zealand, is planning to set an offer of up to $200 million of unsubordinated, unsecured bonds.

This announcement comes after Mark Verbiest, chairman of Transpower NZ, said yesterday the state-owned enterprise must raise $3 billion of debt which will span over the next five years, some of which would have to be sourced from the domestic market.

Bonds are being offered with terms of maturity of seven years (fixed rate notes) and four years (floating rate notes) at the company’s discretion.

Transpower expects bonds to be assigned a credit rating of AA- by Standard & Poor’s and A1 by Moody’s.

Further announcements on interest rates and issue margins are expected to be made on November 25.